MMA Fighting - UFC 249 Postponed Reaction

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

Mike Heck, Jose Youngs, Alex K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon react to the news that UFC 249 will no longer take place April 18, how MMA fans have handled the news, the impact that it will have for the immediate future and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jose Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alex K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Hi, Mike Hak here for MMAfighting.com, reacting to some more breaking news on this Thursday, April 9, 2020 per UFC president, Dana White. UFC 249 is no longer happening on April the 18th. White did, however, say that he's considering this more of a postponement instead of a cancellation. Not only is UFC 249 postponed, but all events have been postponed indefinitely by the organization. One thing Dana White told Brett Akamoto of ESPN, and he said on his Instagram live a little while ago as well, this mystical fight island, fighter island that we've been hearing so much about, it's going to get put to use, and it seems like it's going to get put to use a lot. And it has been one crazy ride to get here. It all began during the UFC 248 fight week last month when Mark Romani of ESPN asked the legitimate question about the coronavirus to Dana White.

after UFC 248, Aaron Bronsider of TSN asked Dana a similar question as the coronavirus was starting to spread a little more and more as we were getting closer towards becoming a global pandemic. Dana White sort of shrugged it off so he didn't give an S

about the coronavirus at the time, but since that day, it has just been twists and turns from Dana calling out the media, calling us wimpy for asking questions about the health and safety regulations of the media for asking these questions. for regulations sake.

And despite constant blowback, Dana White was adamant to keep this train moving. So we go from the Barclay Center to somewhere on planet Earth. And then the New York Times article came out. Jeff Sherwood, the original OG from Sherdog, comes out and reports that Tachi Palace was going to host not only UFC 249, but subsequent events down the road as well over a two-month span beginning on April 18th. In the end, the tippy top guys over at Disney and ESP. We're forced to step in, and UFC 249 is no longer happening on April 18. So we went from Habee versus Tony Ferguson to Tony Ferguson versus Justin Gagee,

Rosamai Yunus being off the card. The dominoes continued to fall, and the biggest domino of all was the event itself that is no longer happening on April 18th. So to join me in reacting to more crazy news. Let us welcome MMA Fighting's own Jose Youngs and Alex K. Lee. All right. We have Jose Young's, Alex Keeley, and E. Casey Liden joining us. Jose, I want to start with you outside of tomorrow's A-side live chat, perhaps being the craziest

in the history of the show. When you saw the news that UFC 249 was no longer happening on April 18th, how would you describe your reaction? Would surprise be an accurate term or was it more like about time? No, I had no reaction. It's that weird of a time right now where the round. of possibilities in this sport and this card going, UFC 249 happening,

nothing surprised me anymore. So I wouldn't say I was surprised. It wouldn't say I was upset. I wouldn't say I was not surprised. I just, it just happened and I was like, this is, I don't like to prepare myself.

Like I learned like a week ago, like Casey has said millions of times. One week feels like six months right now, not just in MMA, but in the whole world. So I would say I had no reaction because I wasn't preparing for, I wasn't preparing myself.

I didn't know what's prepared for. Alex, we literally just reacted to a brand new main event for UFC 249. Three days ago, we had a new main event. And then, like, hours later, we had an entire fight car release. Then we're getting reports that Tachi Palace is going to host not just UFC 249, but months and months of fights after that on a weekly basis. We're nine days away from this event after this entire roller coaster ride we were on. How would you describe your reaction to the news of this day?

Mike, why do we do what we do? Why does anyone do anything? It's really, I feel like the question we should be asking when this kind of news hits, news of this magnitude. I think we all wanted to believe that it was possible. Once Dana White dug his heels in, that it was possible UFC 249 could go forward with some degree of safety. We, you know, we in the media have to cover it anyway.

So we have to find, you know, we had already kind of, I think a lot of us already made this internal compromise that, okay, we want this to happen. And we just hope that Dana White and the UFC are right and they're able to do this. And there's no incidents related to the coronavirus after. And we can all just enjoy it guiltlessly. So we'd already mean that I know I'd made that compromise. And then now this news comes along. And now I don't know what to feel.

I definitely don't feel, I think a lot, I think a lot of whom I think because some of us in the media were critical of how this has been handled, like, oh, this is some victory for us. No, it's not a victory for, it's not a victory for anybody. It's just this kind of absurd reality that we all have to accept. I will say, if I do think that the right thing was done at the end of the day, it took us a long way to get there, apparently. And someone had to be, some of the powers that be well beyond Dana White, as he said, up at, you know, the, The Mighty Mouse at the top of the Disney ladder put his foot down. And here we are. So I think in the net, this is a good thing, but I don't blame a lot of people for being upset and confused and not sure what to do with the next two weeks. Jose, I know you guys touched on this on the A side. I want to sort of add to what Alex just said, because you guys are asked, you know, if the media should boycott UFC 249 with everything going on in the world.

And I've seen people on Twitter sort of like how Alex just said, literally say that the MMA media caused this postponement or cancellation that we're all happy about it, that the fighters should be pissed at us for making this happen. People are literally saying, like, Francis and Gano should come to my house and punch me in the face because I cause this. All of us cause this. I mean, come on, everybody. Like, there's asking questions and getting information.

And then there's, like, flat out defiance. And I don't know about you, but I didn't think any of us really got to that line where we were creating out and out protests. Would you agree with that? Well, if anything, and I'm sure Casey and Alex will agree with me. The fact that the media was being critical probably meant the card had a higher chance of going on. Because you know Dana White likes to spite the media because we're all wins. So the fact that we were critical of this event being held probably just threw gas on the fire for this event to even go forth in the first place.

So for fans saying that the media, it's the. media's fault for this happening. The complete opposite. It was the media that Dana White was like defa—like he called us—what did you say? We were whims. He said we—what did you say? Like, weirdos or creeps that, like— We have no families.

Nobody loves us. No one loves us. No one relies on us. He didn't want to announce the location because a bunch of weirdos would talk about it. Like the fact that he was going out of his way to not—to keep the media out of everything, no. We're not the reason. this fight card is being canceled. Yes, we're critical of it. But like as we sit on the A side,

PTC was on it. Even James Geller, who's not even a media member, was like, it wouldn't make no sense for the media to boycott an event because it's our responsibility. All the questions we have regarding medical checks, hospitals, how the fighters were getting there. Like all of these questions we had were only going to get if we're there. So there's no way we were going to boycott in the first place. So again, it's not our fault. if anything, our voice was the reason this fight was even happening in the first place. Jeff Sherwood actually got, you know, essentially credited from Dana White. Dana White said it was going to happen to Tachi Palace.

And not only that, he said that once they get back to schedule, he's bringing a big fight over there. So, goodos to Jeff for getting this right. And that's how you know the world is coming to them because Dana White is saying nice things about Sherdog. And I like Jeff. He's a very nice man. But, you know, for people who remember the OG Sherdog, Dana White bans that whole site from an event. So the fact that he's crediting Sherdog shows you how, how, like what is happening in the world. I don't think he credited them per se by name, but at least he confirmed the information.

But the fact that we had Cherokee C's because I do want to go ahead. The fact that we had Sherdog and Jeff Sherwood's name mentioned in New York Times is that's just, that's just an all time funny. It's crazy. It's a blast from the past, man. I mean, I saw a lot of Sherdog writers being like, this is cool. This is cool. Guys, the two biggest reporters this week were Sherwood and old and fake Arrow Halwani accounts. Those are the two reporters that the end of white acknowledged this week.

And those reports were, I don't know, led to a big news breaking. So that's the world we live in, right? Sorry, Mike. What are you going to say? No, because some interesting things said by Jose there. But Casey, you've been in that, I mean, you've been covering this for it a lot longer than I have and a lot longer than probably both of us. the other gentleman on this panel have as well, but, you know, do you think the situation

sort of brought out the worst in fans? I mean, this is, you've seen how rabid MMA fans can be, but, you know, this is something different. I feel like, you know, you more than anybody has experienced some things that you've never seen before. Yeah. Oh, sorry, can you hear me?

Yeah. Unfortunately, I do think this brought out the worst in MMA fans. You know, I have been working full-time in MMA. that's been 100% like my job for the last 13 years. And yeah, like even yesterday, I think for the one of the few times, like I was kind of like, I broke in the sense. I was like I can't deal with fans anymore and just how ridiculous everything was. And just like you said, you have people kind of threatening you to send no Francis

Nagano to your house. And it's just like, and I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's an MMA thing. If it was a pandemic thing, if it's just people going crazy inside their home. homes. It was, it was not a good, it was not a good time to be an MMA media member. And, yeah, it just, it was a, it was the time I'm not, I don't want, I'm not going to look back on fondly. Yeah, and this isn't about the MMA video right now. I think the ones who are hurt the most here are the, or the fighters themselves. And out, obviously, you know, it's tough. Yeah, I just want, and I want to say that real quick, um, is like, I do, I was vocal that,

from from ufc 248 i was saying that i was uh we were at the apex center i mentioned i talked i talked about this on the east side how i thought 249 i was talking i was talking to ufc pr and i was like uc 249 would not be happening the barclays center it's going to be happening in here in the ufc apex and originally we thought that was going to be the plan for a while and that was my worst case scenario was 249 being at the apex center in um begas obviously the world got much worse than even my pessimistic ass thought. And I sincerely feel very bad for the fighters on 249 especially who have been training in very unhealthy, unsafe conditions right now. And to go this far along and to get the fight pulled out so close to the event. And I just, it's, it's a very sucky

situation for everyone involved. And I really, my only real criticism, I wish Dana didn't give these fans, didn't give the fighters a false hope. And that's why I feel a lot of this was just false hope because you just, you look, especially in California, where we have the strictest stay-at-home orders in the country. And we're one of the one, we are one of the few states that looks like it actually is kind of flattening the curve. And to throw this event in California,

like it's just I was just like this it's not going to happen and I feel bad I just feel bad yeah especially you know I feel bad for anybody who's supposed to compete on April 18th especially the ones who were scheduled to fight from the very beginning guys like cater and Stevens and Ferguson and the list goes on and on but Alex when you look at a guy like Justin Gaichi I mean this guy stepped up on short notice he admitted that he was terrified of not only fighting Tony Ferguson but taking a short notice for fight, but he had an opportunity to do something that he's never had the opportunity to do, and that was win a UFC title interim or not. He was very excited for that opportunity.

Now he may not get a title shot at all. This has been one of the craziest weeks ever for fighters, fans, the media, everybody involved. You know, where do you think Justin Gagie goes from here? Do you think the UFC at least rewards him? Does he win the Conner sweepstakes after all this? Will that mean as much as fighting for a title? Yeah, I think that would be a great reward for him. But I want to say this reminds me a little bit of when we almost got. Max Holloway and Habib. Remember that? That was on even shorter notice.

That was like less than a week. And that made even less sense. It was probably more surprising. Like the Gave G. Ging thing kind of, you know, when it happened, we were like, oh, yeah, well, I mean, he's been waiting in the wings. He's been looking for a big fight. Yes, he wanted the McGregor fight, but we could totally see him stepping into fight Ferguson.

So like, it was when that news broke, that matchup came out, we're like, yeah, okay, it makes kind of a weird sense. The Holloway thing was completely out of left field. But yeah, I do hope, not just for Gathe G. I do hope there is some reward for everyone involved in the card. Obviously, I think everyone should get paid their show money. I don't care if they, I know that normally the policy is they like guys to at least weigh in. But these circumstances aren't like anything we've seen before.

If Dana really insists that he's doing this for the fighters, pay the money. Pay them. I think they can afford it. I'm not going to lie. I don't know. In all the ins and outs of the USC's finances, I would like to imagine they can afford to pay these fighters something for the hard work they put in, especially, as you mentioned, Mike, the ones who have been training for so long. But even the guys who stepped in and just found out they're fighting in the last week or the last two weeks, like Gatesy, I think Michael Johnson, I don't know if he got moved or he just got added.

They deserve some compensation. And for Gaithy, yes, I do hope this keeps him in line from the McGregor fight. It's a fight that a lot of people want to see. It's a fight that could still be very, very lucrative for him. And from a casual standpoint, even bigger for him than the Ferguson fight. So I do think that's the road that the UFC should go on and keep Gaithi on. And I hope we see that fight whenever fights are able to be put back on again. Jose, who knew that in April of 2020, hashtag Fighter Island would be trending all over the place?

This thing is bigger than ever. This doesn't, I mean, just listening to Dana White, react to it, talking to Brett and doing his first Instagram live. You know, it's international events left and right, U.S. international fighters, so forth and so on. whether that happens or not as anybody's guess. But is that you took away from it as well? Do you really think, like, Dana can get this up and running quick? And if he does, we're just going to bang out Fighter Island events? Well, I don't know if it'll be quick because he was on Instagram live and he said the infrastructure is being built.

Those are his exact words. And I know we were on the A side. And we brought up some questions. It was like, well, is there a hospital? Like, where even is Fighter Island? Like, what coast of the United States is it off of? Like, how are fighters getting there? so they have to fly directly there, or they flying to a hub?

Like, there were a lot of questions that we wanted to answer outside of Will Fighter Island Fights even happen? So we joked that if Fighter Island did happen, we wouldn't be surprised if they made it an annual event like, oh, every April there's going to be a card on Fighter Island. It's basically sounded like a real-life Kumete for fans of Bloodsport. So Dana White says it's still being built, but again, I don't even know where this island is even going to be. But we have a lot to get through before we can think of fighter island, an annual fighter

island event. All right. I'm going to ask all three of you guys this question. We'll start with Casey that will go to Alex and we'll go to Jose. Dana White said that he wants to keep this straight moving. He said it is very adamant about they will be the first sporting event back once this all clears up. Like they will be out first.

You know, WW is not really considered a sport. They're sports entertainment. But in terms of professional sports, Dana says they're going to be first. So Casey, I'm going to set the over under at June 15th. And I don't even know if there's an event that day. Over under June 15th, the UFC's back holding an event. I hope so. I hope so.

And it wouldn't, but I don't think so. I'm going to say no, but I really hope so because if the UFC is having events, that means that the world is moving in a better direction. That means the curve is flattening. That means people are saying self-hisolated. That means the virus is getting contained, which is why we're doing this big Skype thing anyway. That's why we're not in the same room. So, if mid-June, if things are going good and we can actually have events and people can be within six feet of each other, then that'll be a great thing for, that would be great thing for the world.

And I hope, I hope that happens. Jose over under June 15th. I'll say, I don't know. I agree with Casey. It's probably going to be past June. I would imagine it wouldn't surprise me if you tried to kick off International Fight Week. I doubt Danaway would want to miss International Fight Week in July. The big card in June was supposed to be, if I'm not mistaken, the Perth card,

which is going to have Valentin on before she got hurt. So I'm going to say International Fight Week. week is when the earliest we might see fights considering how important that week of the year is to the O.C. But I agree with Casey. I hope it's in May or June just because like Casey said, it's, it means the world is getting into semi-normal, but I have a close friend who like runs social media for like concerts, like major concerts. And he's saying from the studio managers and stuff, he's talking to that they're not going to hold conscious until the fall just because even if they do get some sort of normality back in the world, fans aren't.

going to want to go to anything for a while. But if Dana-Wa is still gung-ho on holding events in closed arenas, I would imagine international fight weeks. I'll say early July. Do you think it'll be before or after international fight week, Alex Kaley? And again, let's just preface this. We want this to happen. We want the fighters to fight. You want to do it as safe as possible. Like, we want all this to be a thing of the past in some way, at least behind us in some way. So we're rooting for this to happen. But we're being realistic and given our opinions here, Alex. What's yours? Well, first I'll say,

Jose and Casey, your kumbaya, I hope the world is better soy boy answers. Really touched my heart, honestly. I'm very emotional right now. If I could get within 60, I would give you a hug. I'm going to go under. Oh, please don't. I'm going to go under.

As in, as in, I think that events will take place before June 15th. Fighter Island is real. This private island, wherever it is real. Really, I'm still surprised that, like, you know, Chil-Sonen pulled off that submission underground thing and whatever, I always keep saying abandoned missile silo. We have no idea. So if he could pull that off, I mean, this island thing isn't completely unreasonable. Again, I'm not saying it's a good idea, but do I think that Dana White can pull it off? I kind of do. I kind of think they're going to find a way. I think it's going to be, if we thought UFC 249 is mysterious, whatever event they hold on, you know, UFC Fight Island is going to be, again, just we keep joking, Kuma Tait, you know, Mortal Kombat,

whatever cliche martial arts, you know, tournament movie you want to talk about, it's going to be like, like 12 fighters invited, 12, 12 men and women enter, one man or woman leaves, you know, pay for your ticket if you want to find out who it is and who gets out. And it's weird. I do, I want a question, you know, given that he, for lack of a better term, failed to keep this event together. So I want to question him, but a weird part of me thinks before June 15th, somehow there will be some sort of UFs, live UFC content. I'm with you, Alex. I think it's going to be right around Memorial Day-ish, like maybe a week after that.

I think we're going to be talking late, May, early June at this point. I think he's, once he gets a few days of rest and gets his brain unfogged a little bit, because, listen, you can say whatever you want about Dana White at this point. And you could say that, you know, he was unethical for trying to put these events on. But at the same time, this guy. must have killed himself for the last month to six weeks trying to put this event together. Hunter Campbell as well, he mentioned that as much. But I mean, to think this guy was just sitting around doing nothing is just not the case. This guy's probably had eight hours of sleep in the last month.

So I will commend him for at least trying to make this happen and trying to do it safely, although we didn't have any any X's and O's behind how he was going to do that. And I think that was our biggest point of contention when it came to putting these events together. But there you have it. Any final thoughts, gentlemen? UFC 249, no longer happening April 18th. Where do we go from here? Well, we don't know.

We're knocking here from Dana White for a while, because for those of you who missed his Instagram and lie, his quote, he ended with, quote, I am annihilated, I'm tired, I'm going to go sleep for three days. So expect to hear from Dana in 72 hours. I just have it. I just want to say that I really hope the UFC doesn't come back too soon. And I say this because, and this is why I won a 2.9 canceled, because if they come back too soon, they start having fighters train, cut weight, no, obviously you have to close contact people.

And we have a fighter that gets sick or becomes ill or training part becomes ill. And it becomes a, it's just bad news. And it's a really, it's a really preventable way to have the first serious death or injury in this sport. I just, that's why I just like, just don't rush this, Dana. We can get through this. If you don't rush it, if you rush it, then, like, you just listen to any scientists, then this thing can just kind of go on for a long time. So I just, just slow it down, Dana.

We're on this together. So let's just do this right. Well said, Casey. I don't think any of us could say it any better. Oh, Alex, but I bet you can. Go ahead. No, no. I think both you guys, great sentiment.

I'll speak to the fans because I'm a man of the people, as you all know. We kind of, you have been talking about how, like, there's been this adversarial relationship with some segment of the fans over, you know, the handling of USC 249. But I will say, I do sympathize. I absolutely sympathize as people who really want to see fights go on and everything return to normal. Look, I mean, look, it's a very selfish thing, I think, to want that. But that doesn't mean it's, I don't understand it.

Like, I totally understand why people want that. And, but I'll say this like, guys, you know, people out there who are like, oh, I need fights. I need the UFC. I need things. It's like, I'll tell you something. You don't need it. Okay. We all want it.

You don't need it. You're better. Fan, I'm speaking to you. You're better than that. Find a hobby. Look inward. Take this time for introspection. I know times are tough for everyone.

And, you know, any distraction we can get is welcome. But you will, you will survive. I believe in you. And when, you know, someday when everything's back to normal, you'll come out of this. hopefully a more enlightened and, you know, a better person who can look at sports as a hobby and as a want and not as a need. I was well said. Very nice, Alex.

And let me add to this. If you really want fights and especially if you're new to the sport, go back and watch Pride, go back and watch WEC. There's plenty of things I can assure you that most people watching this right now have never seen before. So if you're looking for some great badass fights, you're going to find them there. So I'm not trying to plug UFC Fight Pass, but if they want to give me a little bit of a commission, I'll gladly take it in this day and age

but seriously that's that's what you get it like Alex said find a hobby you know go for a walk take a deep breath and read a book read a book read a book

read a book read a book there you go I want to read I think I'm going to order Jim Ross's new book because I want to read that but uh

you know what that's another winner win or learn Mike winner learn that's good wow the last

I thought we weren't plugging I thought we weren't plugging yeah the last book Oh, is it a book? That's just my same. I'll read them. But it's going to be an interesting AISID live chat tomorrow. What time's that start, Jose? 1 p.m. Eastern?

That starts 1 p.m. Eastern. 10 a.m. Pacific. I don't know what time UK that is. I know we have a lot of UK listeners that are always like, why don't you advertise for us? I'm just like, you guys know when it starts anyway. So you've got it covered. America. Very interesting. It's a very interesting show. So make sure you're tuned into that. and that's going to do it. So for Casey, Jose and Alex,

I am Mike Kack reacting to the big news of the day. UFC 249, no longer happening on April 18th. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.